A Primeval Christmas
by bhut
Summary: A response to "The ARC's" mid-December challenge - Nick and co. celebrate Christmas.
1. Chapter 1

**A **_**Primeval**_** Christmas**

_All Primeval characters belong to Impossible Pictures, unless stated otherwise._

-1-

Winter had hit London with a sudden vengeance – the winds were blowing, the snow was falling into deep drifts and piles, and the sky itself was covered in metallic grey clouds that obscured the sky all the way downwards to the horizontal division between the sky and the ground itself. The city's traffic was reduced to a trickle, and public transportation, like the buses, trolleys and taxis were seemingly almost as extinct as the woolly mammoth and giant moa.

Surprisingly – or perhaps not so – some people were hit harder than others. Jenny had to – really reluctantly – abandon her trademark high heeled shoes for something more weather appropriate, while several other members of the ARC got hit with flues and colds of the season. And to make matters even more confusing the usual – the time anomalies got really rare and far-between. Nick was tempted to blame Helen on this, but without any concrete proof, he risked sounding as paranoid instead.

Not that there weren't other things to do, either. Connor, in particular, was busy fixing the ARC's monitoring equipment and flushing out all the bugs in the system installed by late Oliver Leek. Jenny Lewis, on the other hand, currently had a lot of free time on her hands and a rather disgruntled mood over the loss of her usual footwear, no matter how temporary, and so she had hit upon an idea. Unfortunately though, she decided to share it with Lester first and Lester was never a person to shy away from sharing his opinions about anything with others...

"Good afternoon, people," he said the next day after Jenny had submitted her proposal to him. "I have a brief announcement – the ARC will not celebrate Christmas this year!"

"What? No Christmas? Lester, how can you?" Abby was the first to respond. "What are you, Ebenezer Scrooge?"

"No.... well, yes, if that's how you feel," Lester shrugged, apparently not very bothered by Abby's exclamation at all. "The ARC is still not out of the financial death pit that Oliver had thrown it in, and with precious little to show in the lieu of time anomalies, we're going preciously slow to demonstrate our worth to the state as well. Thus, we simply cannot afford any of the Christmas holiday spirit that Ms. Lewis had in mind, period. And consequently, I would be much obliged if you kept this in mind for any other holiday ideas. You want to celebrate - celebrate it on your own expenses and not on the state's. Have a good day."

With these words and a grandiose flourish of hands, James Lester left the field agents of the ARC to each other.

"What? No Christmas?" Abby said, her voice actually whiny for once. "But- but that's just wrong!"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe we can celebrate something more private, as Lester suggested that we do," Jenny replied, obviously upset herself, and turning to Nick to support. Surprisingly though, the gloomy Scotsman didn't back her up.

"Ah, you heard Lester – no Christmas this year. Who needs it? It's a Papist holiday anyways," he snapped instead. "Now if you don't mind, I'm leaving, because there's nothing to do around here anyways?"

As Nick picked-up his heavy coat and left, the others stood, obviously shocked by Nick's apparent solidarity with Lester of all people. Connor, however, decided to fill the silence. "I, uh, think that a private Christmas is a good idea," he said, shakily. "Abby, ah, you have any ideas where to hold it?"

Abby whirled around, ready to give Connor a piece of her mind but in the corner of her eye she saw Jenny's face, who looked as if she just saw someone kicking a puppy without her able to do anything, and changed her mind abruptly.

"Fine, Connor, let's go through your Christmas ideas first," she said instead, determined to save at least something from the debacle. "Do you have anything in mind?"

Connor hesitated. "Well, Caroline and I had visited this nice little East European restaurant-"

As Abby's face abruptly went livid, Connor stopped talking, but it was too late. Abby's Christmas trail just got abruptly derailed and went-off in a completely wrong direction...

Outside, the weather had relented somewhat, as the wind had stopped blowing and throwing snow all over the sidewalks and the driveway, but Nick still thought that he heard a thin windy-reedy whistling up in the rooftops.

Nick looked up – but there was no wind or falling snow, though the sky was dark with snow clouds. His mind was probably just playing tricks on him. He turned to look back in front of him once again – and there was a time anomaly, glowing chromatically white in all of its' glory. Startled, shocked, excited – and almost drooling – Nick began to approach it, afraid that it might disappear as suddenly as it had appeared. In fact, Nick was so excited, that he actually forgot to realize that anything could emerge from the other side of the time anomaly, nor did he realize to look around, just in case of...

Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed Nick by a sleeve and half-turned him away from the time anomaly. In that position, Nick found himself face to face with Helen, who, for once, looked about as surprised about him, as he was about her.

As the former couple stood, just staring at each other in mutual shock, the windy whistling sound came back – much, much stronger than before. At the same time, Helen grabbed him and pulled towards the time anomaly, and something struck Nick in the side, and so they all fell through the hole in time.

For a brief moment Nick saw a gaunt, vaguely human-like visage with teeth that were completely wrong for a human – or any mammal for that matter – and then he was hit by a sudden wave of heat, completely out of place in wintry London. Or maybe he wasn't even in wintry London anymore?

Essentially, Nick forced himself to get up on his feet. As he did, he momentarily saw Helen face-off with something big and greyish-white and humanoid, before that something leapt away – up onto a tree and away, where it quickly vanished among the trees of the forest.

Here, Nick took a pause and looked around. He and Helen were standing in a mighty redwood forest, with sunlight filtering through the branches and along the mossy trunks, creating a filigree of light and shadow. The air was sunlit and pleasantly warm, especially after London in winter. "Helen," Nick spoke-up, finally confident that his voice won't waver, "what is this place?"

"South America, Late Cretaceous time period," Helen explained calmly, as if she had to deal with this kind of thing every day – oh wait, she did. "And if you don't mind, Nick, this time I am really not interested in you or anything that you're going to say."

"Helen, what was that thing – that thing that got away from you?" Nick shook his head, ignoring Helen's previous statement.

"A predator from the future."

"No, it wasn't. The future predators are completely different from it."

"Have you thought that this was a different predator from the future, one that actually feeds on the ones you have talked about?" Helen's voice oozed with biting sarcasm. "Oh wait, I forgot that it's you – of course you didn't. Now please see yourself back through the time anomaly, I have to go and kill it."

"Now why do you want to do that?"

"Because... actually, Nick Cutter, I don't have to explain anything to you anymore. Good-bye and good riddance!"

"Helen, you're bitter – that means that you're hurting," Nick said without thinking.

Helen whirled around, as if stung."What did you say-?"

"Uh," Nick blinked. "What I meant was – what's that sound?"

Indeed, a low, but steadily growing rumbling could be heard through the woods. Helen's face changed from angry to exasperated one. "Oh, for someone's sake, unless you want to get trampled to death, climb up a tree."

Nick blinked, took a look at Helen who already was doing that, cast off his winter coat and hat and climbed the tree after her. Already the rumbling had grown significantly louder, accompanied by a cloud of dust, through which Nick could see...

"Dinosaurs," he whispered in something approaching awe. Small head waved at the ends of long necks that were attached to box-shaped bodies that ended in long, tapering tales and stood on four pillar-like feet. "Sauropods. In Late Cretaceous...South America...these are titanosaurs!"

"I am happy for you, really," Helen's voice was back to being lazily sarcastic. "And those are the theropods, I believe."

Nick stared once again, as he saw the lumbering behemoths trailed by creatures that were about as long as they were, but built in a completely different manner, standing only on their hind legs, and boasting long, powerful jaws and forearms.

"Giganotosaurus," he whispered, "probably the largest land carnivore of all times."

"Yes, dear, look at the colourful critters," Helen's voice was not quiet or revered. "Honestly, you saw one theropod you saw them all. These ones aren't all that different from the allosaurs back in the Late Jurassic, just more robust, like the T-Rex."

"You saw them all?" Nick turned back to her.

"Yes, I saw the allosaurs hunt the sauropods and I saw a daspletosaurus family hunt down hadrosaurs. Honestly, all the main differences are in the details, the basic design is largely one and the same."

"And you survived?"

"It's easy, if you follow the rule of the thumb – never disturb a mother at its' nest. If you disturb a female theropod that is hatching its eggs or taking care of its young, then it'll do the damnedest best to kill you. But otherwise, these giants ignore you altogether – it's the middle ones, like the ceratosaurus, that you need to watch out for."

"The middle ones?"

"The small ones are the ones from the Late Triassic and onwards, like the coelophysis, I believe. You can fight such ones away, using brute force if necessary. The large ones are the tyrannosaurus and its' kin and these ones and the allosaurs and so on. Unless you disturb a mother, they'll ignore you as if not worse the trouble. But the ones in the middle – ceratosaurus, utahraptor and so on – they're the ones specializing in small, fast prey like the dryosaurs that lived in that times, and they are generally human-sized, so these middle ones are the best equipped to hunt us. Trust me; I have seen the carnivores of all the sizes, so I know what I'm talking about."

Nick stared at her, as Helen began to climb down the tree, ignoring the now departing sauropods and their carnivorous pursuers. Then he followed her.

"Helen," he began again once they got down. "I-"

"Stop it, Nick," Helen turned around, obviously bitter and angry once again. "We could have had that chance, now it's gone. Now follow it through that time anomaly and leave me finish my job in peace!"

"What job? How do you know that it hadn't left for our time already?"

"Because-!" Helen shouted and whirled around, thrusting forwards with her knife, which apparently was attached to some sort of a battery pack – and she scored a hit. Nick could only watch, as her blade pierced the flesh of a creature that looked like a mummified human with bat-like wings in place of arms and talon-like claws on in place of feet. The mouth was opened wide, emitting a silent scream and showing an array of teeth that resembled teeth of a carnivorous dinosaur or a deep-water fish rather than a mammal. For few long moments the creature twitched, and then it fell down, silent and dead, its' flesh smoking from the electricity that had killed it.

"Well, glad that's over," Helen muttered, as she disassembled her weapon. "Now let's go, unless you want to get stuck here until the next time anomaly opens. I grant that it probably sounds exciting, staying here with all of your favourite dinosaurs, but believe me, it becomes real old real quick, once the gilt comes off the lily."

"Then why didn't you come back?" Nick said, despite his best intentions.

"Maybe I will – when the time is right, but you will never know it."

"Oh, Helen," Nick sighed. "How did it come to this?"

"Oh, I don't know," Helen said crossly, as several lizard-like creatures emerged from behind the trees and gathered around the corpse of the winged humanoid, "for the first six years of our marriage I did love you, and for the next four or so I respected you still. But you, well you, you just cared about the academic career – your academic career and expected me to travel in your wake instead. I've a valid doctorate of anthropology, damn it!"

Nick slowly looked at Helen. "Our first Christmas together we had our first pizza – it wasn't that good, we both agreed. On the second we had our first proper Christmas meal – chicken, chips with cheese and beer."

"On the third I managed to cook meat roast for the first time without burning it – even your mother said so," Helen said flatly. "How is that piece of bedrock anyways?"

"Just fine, thank you," Nick said, shaking his head. "I guess I just cannot believe that that was the beginning of this."

"Me neither," Helen admitted after a pause. "Maybe if we had had a child of our back then – back when I was ready to have one of yours anyways – maybe it wouldn't have come to this."

"You wanted to have a child?"

"Yes, though when you refused to have even a pet tortoise-"

"I remember that," Nick said thoughtfully. "You wanted a tortoise; I suggested that you try out with a cactus instead."

"Nick – you studied animals, I was interested in people. Neither of us knew a dead bat's worth about plants. And speaking of dead bats – do you know what these scavengers are?"

"Allodaposuchus," Nick said without hesitation. "Or maybe, since this South America, notosuchus. Ancient crocodilians, in other words."

"They're all archosaurs, as far as I am concerned," Helen replied, "and if we're trying to be civil to each other, for once, tell me what were you doing outside at that hour?"

"Funnily enough, thinking about Christmas," Nick said, turning angry once again. "It's funny, really, how I can remember those times with you-"

"Stop," Helen shook her head, her eyes dark with anger. "That part of our lives is over; we both buried it each in his and her own way. I suggest you try living your present now, just like how I do."

"Well, what is your present?" Nick exploded. "Late Cretaceous, 80 million years BC?"

"No!" Helen's reply was just as curt. "That's my little secret, and you're not privy to it! But your present is back there, in modern London, with Jenny – or is Claudia? Did you learn to differentiate between the two?"

"Don't mock me, woman!" Nick growled. "Why did you have to constantly mess with me?"

"Because left on your own, you just sit there, you big lump of Scotland's bedrock! Without the time anomalies nothing of this could have happened, you realize this?"

"The time anomalies must not be taken for granted!" Nick thundered back. "They must be studied-"

"From the comforts of your own study cabinet, no doubt," Helen's voice was as dry as sandpaper. "Nick, you're just too inert. The time anomalies are the best things that have happened to you – or me."

"Best things? Helen, Stephen died!"

"I admit that that is the opposite of what I intended to do with him," Helen said dryly. "But first of all, the time anomalies didn't do that, and second, wait, no. That is none of your business."

Nick shook his head. "You're incorrigible, Helen. You always have an excuse, don't you?"

"Whereas you would rather flee into a dark winter night than face the changes of the present. Nick Cutter, I have seen species from over a thousand million years, and you know what? In time, they either evolved into new species, or they died out without a trace. Nick Cutter, if you don't want to get extinct before your time, start changing with the present!"

For few moments the Cutters just glared at each other, and then Nick shook his head. "I just had a worst case of déjà vu since that incident with the mosasaurus. Helen..."

"Let's end this little meeting on a positive note, shall we?" Helen replied, obviously not willing to continue this fight either. "You go to your friends, and I go to my place instead."

"Fine," Nick nodded, as he put his winter coat back on and went into the time anomaly. "And Helen?"

"What?"

"Merry Christmas to come."

Helen rolled her eyes."And a merry Christmas to you, you Scotsman of a pebble. Now go and learn from your history, lest you want to repeat it."

And that was the last time that Nick saw Helen for a while – through a closing time anomaly, vanishing into a prehistoric South American forest. And then he smiled to himself and went back to the ARC, to change his personal future.


	2. Chapter 2

**A **_**Primeval**_** Christmas**

_All Primeval characters belong to Impossible Pictures, unless stated otherwise._

-2-

As Nick was walking through the ARC, he noticed just how empty it was – with the time anomalies running low, so was the ARC's staff – but it wasn't exactly quiet: even at a distance, the sounds of Abby feeling riled could be heard loud and clear. At this particular instance though, Nick was more surprised that Lester didn't hear Abby – or maybe he did but decided to keep out of this one instead.

"Our flat? My flat? Our flat?" Abby was repeating herself like a broken-down vinyl record or a really obnoxious parrot. "Connor, the flat – thanks to your reparations – is a mess! I would rather-"

"Hey, everybody, what did I miss?" Nick asked casually, as he re-entered the field agents' conference room. Judging from the redness of Abby's face, the paleness of Connor's, and the embarrassment of Jenny's, it wasn't anything vital.

Apparently, Jenny too thought along those lines. "You're back!" she said rather too excitedly for just a casual conversation, and immediately tried to double-check herself. "That is to say-"

"What I want to say is that if we want to have a private Christmas party, we can hold in my apartment," Nick decided to pretend that Jenny's excitement was misplaced. "How about that?"

Connor immediately beamed, but Abby's face was more controlled. "What brought that, um, change of heart?" she muttered, looking uncomfortable – after all, this was looking into a gift horse's mouth.

"Feeling of déjà vu," Nick replied plainly, "and an unplanned meeting with Helen."

There was a pause, as the other three mentally digested what he had said. "Helen?" Jenny said quietly. "What did she want?"

Nick sighed. "Honestly, she was after some other business of hers, and I couldn't make much sense of it, either."

"And yet-"

"Look, do we really want to talk about Helen? It won't be short or pleasant, and I really want to try to celebrate Christmas – if the three of you are willing."

Now Abby and Connor looked questioningly at Jenny, implying that it was her move. "Fine," Jenny replied after apparently going through some intense internal struggle. "We're willing, I guess. Guys?"

Abby and Connor nodded in response, implying that yes, they were ready and willing.

"Great!" Nick said cheerfully, responding as if all was as it should be. "Shall we go then and plan...well, Jenny do you have a plan?"

Jenny blushed, embarrassed slightly once again. "Not really, I mean we put on some decorations, hopefully a tree and a meal – eggnog and apple pie would be enough." She paused. "Look, it's not that I harangued Lester about it, I just thought that it would be a nice touch in these, well, glum times."

"And it is," Abby nodded loyally. "Right, guys?"

Connor and Nick nodded, their ears hearing in Abby's voice the subtle notes of agreement or else. "Decorations will be a problem, though," Nick admitted, sheepishly. "I don't really have any – not for a long while."

"Oh, me and Abby can get that," Connor said cheerfully. "We even have a Christmas tree – albeit an artificial one."

"Great! Why don't yet get them, while I and Nick go to his place and generally set it up?" Jenny said quietly, still subdued.

"Sure," Connor said enthusiastically, towing Abby with him. "We'd be happy to. Come on, Abs!"

"What did you call me?" Abby's indignant voice vanished as the younger couple vanished down the corridor.

Nick and Jenny exchanged looks of their own, partly with fondness, but partly wary. "Come on," Nick decided first. "We can talk on the way to my place."

Jenny nodded, still quiet, and she remained quiet, even as Nick drove them to his place. Though he wasn't a talkative person himself, he knew when he had hit on something bad, and as such he assumed that that badness should not be kept under wraps for long. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly. "Problems with Lester?"

"More like a mortal case of mortification," Jenny admitted. "See, after I broke-off the engagement, I moved out, and am currently staying in a hotel. It's not that I cannot find an apartment of my own, you know, it's just that I haven't found one until now, and since I cannot cook very well either-"

"That makes two of us," Nick replied, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "Jenny, come on, this'll be just the two of us, plus Abby and Connor, and neither of them know how to cook either."

"Well, Abby thinks that she can," Jenny winced, "though Connor's idea of take-out does have its attractions. Still, mentioning Caroline was a dumb move."

"What did happen to that girl?" Nick asked conversationally.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask Lester. Still, she pretty much went out of the window, when Connor reminded Abby of her crush on Stephen."

"Bad, bad idea," Nick winced. "I am surprised that Connor didn't go out of the window instead!"

"Yes, well, Abby seems to be genuinely in love with the goof, and I guess that's why Connor just got off with an earful of harangue," Jenny smiled, and then got serious. "Nick, what has happened?"

"Helen had," Nick sighed, "and she was in the right frame of mind, for a change."

"The right frame being?"

"The honest approach one."

"Oh. She can do that?"

"Yes, she did and still can, apparently," Nick shook his head. "During this encounter we both established that getting married to each was the worst thing we have ever done, end of story."

"Really?" Jenny visibly perked-up, despite her innate restraint. "Why'd you get married in the first place?"

"For the same reasons we cannot really stand each other now," Nick sighed. "Look, back then we were barely older than Abby and Connor are now, and marriage seemed like a good idea, you know?"

"Maybe you shouldn't mention that to them," Jenny said carefully after a brief pause. "They may not understand it correctly, and they're already having problems with each other."

"As my uncle used to say, a successful marriage stands on three pillars," Nick began, and the dropped away. "And since he used to say it away from my mother's ears, I'm guessing that that was a rather men-only type of wise saying."

"Just what kind of a family do you have, Nick Cutter?" Jenny asked sceptically.

"A very traditional Scottish one," Nick shook his head. "What about yours?"

"A rich English one," Jenny replied calmly. "Uh – why did we stop?"

"Because we've arrived at my place," Nick said, glad for the change in conversation. "Come on; let's see if it hasn't been completely overridden with spiders yet."

In fact, it wasn't. The apartment was relatively cleanly swept, and in the middle of it, on the table, stood a potted coniferous plant, and several large oval spheres – and a Christmas card.

"Helen?" Jenny muttered weakly.

"Helen," Nick sighed resignedly and walked-over to the table, carefully taking the Christmas card and reading it. As he read it, his eyebrows climbed steadily up, until he finally turned to Jenny looked more surprised than wary.

"What?" Jenny asked nervously.

"Apparently, this is Helen's way of closure," he said slowly. "Preserved dinosaur eggs."

"Preserved dinosaur eggs?!"

"Yes," Nick said. "Apparently, Helen is dead set on starting a new slate or whatever. Jenny, say something."

"A new slate? Nick, what's going on?!" Jenny looked so pitiful, that Nick understood that he had to take the initiative into his own hands.

"Either Helen had discovered a new way of psychological warfare, or she is really trying to close our mutual past – her and mine, that is."

Jenny sighed. "I feel...this feels..."

"Normal," Nick shrugged. "Without the time anomalies this situation... Jenny, look. I know that I am not the perfect man like your ex-fiancée was. I am conservative, inert, and, well, from Scotland. As an ex-wife, Helen does not exactly improve the situation either, but, well, do you think that maybe we could try to work it out, somehow? I...you and I..."

Jenny turned red. "Uh, Nick, I mean this is...I mean I am but this is..."

A loud knock at the door brought a much-desired interrupted into the awkwardness between the pair. "Abby? Connor?"

"Yeah, it's us!" The younger couple burst in, noticing the redness of the others. "What had happened here? Nick offered his hand in marriage?"

"Connor!" the other three exploded almost simultaneously. "Have some tact!"

"Sorry...um, what's with the eggs?"

Nick just groaned and gave Connor Helen's card. Connor and Abby blinked it and stared at Nick. "Is she serious?"

"Apparently," Nick shrugged, suggesting that he really didn't want to discuss this development with anyone, irrelevant of that person's identity. "I am not sure how far we can trust her, but regarding those eggs I am certain that that's what they are."

"You do?" Abby said, curious.

"He's a professor of palaeontology," Connor clarified to her. "Of course he does."

"Look," Nick sighed, as he clearly saw the suspicious glances of Abby and Jenny's. "Tomorrow we'll take them to the ARC and see what's up with them. Right now, honestly, I do not want to talk with Lester any more than you do. Consequently, we don't we try to talk about something else?"

"Like what?"

"Rex?"

"He's fine, just a bit under the weather," Connor shrugged, still unsure if he should drop the topic after all. "Now Abby and I shall decorate the place while you get the food, right?"

"Yes, you do that," Nick nodded, as he and Jenny went in the direction of his kitchenette. "Just try to be careful, okay?"

"Nick, whom do you take us for?" Connor protested weakly, but Abby glared at him, and Connor fell silent. Apparently, not everything was going on smoothly between the two of them either, and consequently, after exchanging looks, Nick and Jenny left the younger couple to their own devices, and went to see what Nick actually had in his fridge.

"Is it always that clean here, or is also Helen's doing?" Jenny asked suspiciously, as she examined the neat and clean cooking space.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do have a life outside of ARC," Nick snapped, but immediately looked more apologetic. "That may have come out wrong, I suppose."

"No, no, my fault," Jenny said, also caught flat-footed by that statement. "It's just that, with Stephen gone..."

"Aye," Nick nodded, solemn once more, "this was not the way it had to end... it was not the way any of us wanted to end... and Helen didn't help it any either. She had many various qualities, but apparently arrogance is one of them. Either that or hubris."

"Right, so what do you have in the fridge?"

"Soup, salad, and can of preserved peaches," Nick shrugged.

"What?"

"Hey, I said I could cook, I never said that I was a master chef or whatever you thought!" Nick said defensively, but was interrupted by a crash from the living room.

"Guys – I mean Nick, where's the vacuum cleaner around here?" Connor appeared, smiling just too innocently for the others' taste. "We may have had an accident setting up the plastic tree."

"Just how big an accident are we talking about?" Nick said, with a frown.

"Just a small one," Connor said pitifully.

"The vacuum cleaner's in the closet down the corridor that leads to the bedroom," Nick sighed. "Try not to break it, though – it's not very new or sturdy."

"Aye-aye Nick!" Connor beamed happily once again and vanished from the kitchen. Nick and Jenny waited with held breath for any kind of a response from the main apartment area.

There was no crash, but Nick and Jenny could hear sounds of another argument beginning to brew once more in the living room. Nick and Jenny exchanged embarrassed glances and hurried to the fridge to take the meal out of it and into the living room before the younger adults could break it apart completely – but, to their surprise, that was not so. Rather, the room was lit by several strings of Christmas lights, hanging around the mirrors, cupboard, several book tables and the doors. A plastic – but not too cheesy – Christmas tree was standing opposite the dining table, decorated in various classical tree ornaments and garlands.

"I'm impressed, this is very comfy!" Jenny gushed, as she wobbled the dish with salad in her arms. "Abby, Connor, you guys did great!"

"Don't mention it," Jenny blushed, as she pushed with her leg something under the fake tree. "We tried our best. What's in the dishes, guys? It smells great!"

"Just something I managed to cook up," Nick said wryly. "So how about we serve and enjoy it, unless something truly unexpected happens?"

"Like what?"

"James Lester will fly over to my window in sleigh flown by reindeer and offer us a part-time job as elves?"

Connor blinked and shook from laughter; Abby and Jenny were more controlling of themselves, but still managed to giggle. "And on that note, let's celebrate – or try to," Nick continued, smirking slightly himself. "I grant you that this won't be the grandest Christmas or whatever, but it will be homey."

"And that's what Christmas is all about," Jenny nodded, as she, Nick, and the younger couple settled behind Nick's square living room, "spending time with your family and friends. Merry Christmas, you all!"

"Merry Christmas!" the others echoed back.

End.


End file.
